some one was due to rouse me up
soon, I could not tell.

"It's all due to having such a headache," I thought, "and of course
through this horrid air. Why doesn't he wake up and open the window?"

How long that lasted I cannot tell, but it must have been for some time,
during which my brain burned and my thoughts came in a horribly confused
manner. I could hear the sounds on deck, and feel that the ship was
careening over with the breeze, but these facts suggested nothing to me,
and I must have been in quite a stupor, when I was roused by a voice
saying angrily--

"Well, what is it?"

I knew the voice from its rough harsh tones, and I lay waiting for some
one to answer, but there was no reply, and all was blacker and hotter
than ever, when there came the peculiar smacking noise of one passing
his tongue over his dry lips, and once more he spoke.

"D'yer hear, what is it?"

There was no reply, and it seemed to me that the speaker was settling
himself down to go to sleep again, for he moved uneasily.

"What did yer say, Neb?"

I had not heard Neb Dumlow say anything, and I wondered why I had not,
for I did not think I had been to sleep. But I felt that I must have
been, or I should have heard.

"Mussy me, what a head I've got!" muttered the voice. "Did the gents
give us some rum?"

There was a pause.

"Must ha' done, but I don't recklect. Why, it must ha' been a whole
lot."

My head must have been growing less confused, for now I began to be
puzzled about how it was that Bob Hampton was sleeping in our cabin
instead of just under shelter with the others at the entrance of the
saloon. It was very strange, but I was too stupid to arrange things.
Once I wondered whether I really was in the cabin along with Mr Frewen,
but I got no farther with that line of reasoning, and I was sinking back
into my stupor or lethargy when Bob Hampton spoke again.

"Here, Neb--Barney, open something, and let's have some fresh air. My,
how hot!"

He had a headache too then, and could hardly breathe for the hot
closeness of the place. This roused me, and I lay thinking how strange
it was that he should be just as much indisposed as I was to move. But
he was a fore-mast man and I was an officer, so I had only to speak to
be obeyed, and after making two or three efforts which only resulted in
a dull muttering sound, Bob Hampton exclaimed--

"Here, whatcher talking about? Who is it, and what do you want?"

"I say, open